PROVIDENCE — The Carcieri administration has terminated as of 11:55 p.m. tonight all its contracts with TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance to clean more than four dozen buildings across state government, from the University of Rhode Island campus to motor vehicles registries to the main administration building, at One Capitol Hill.

The two companies jumped into the public spotlight last week as the employers of the 31 suspected illegal immigrants who were arrested by federal immigration officials last week as they left work at six state courthouses.

While the status of the court-cleaning contracts remains uncertain, Department of Administration Director Jerome Williams said he decided to terminate close to 50 executive-branch contracts with the companies after an internal review found the companies had been reporting many fewer employees to the Department of Labor & Training than they had told the state they had available.

Falcon told state labor officials it had eight employees in January and five in both February and March and TriState reported having only six employees during each of those months, when the state “has reason to believe” both companies have “significantly more employees than that. That gives rise to serious concerns,” the state’s acting purchasing agent, Lorraine Hynes, wrote Williams in letters made public yesterday.

Williams said: “The way I am interpreting that is [that] they are telling us one thing and reporting something else.”

Beyond that, neither company produced requested evidence they had enrolled — though both told the state they had — in the E-Verify program for confirming a prospective employee’s immigration status, or that they had required their employees to prove they are who they say they are and are eligible to work in this country, information that all employers have been required by federal law to compile and report on federal I-9 forms since Nov. 6, 1986. Also missing: proof that Falcon has “current liability and workers compensation insurance.”

Vincent D’Elia, the president of Falcon Maintenance, “admitted” at a meeting with Department of Administration officials Monday that “he had not been completing the Form I-9 — Employment Eligibility Verification Form for the company’s employees as required by federal law,” Hynes wrote. (Since making this admission, Hynes said, D’Elia has not returned numerous calls from her office.)

Quoting from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security handbook for employers, Hynes said: “Employment is often the magnet that attracts individuals to reside in the United States illegally. The purpose of the employer sanctions law is to remove this magnet by requiring employers to hire only individuals who may legally work here: citizens and nationals of the United States, lawful permanent residents and aliens authorized to work.”

Hynes advised Williams that it was her opinion that continued use of the two companies would “present a clear and immediate danger to the public interest.” She recommended termination of the contracts. The letters went out yesterday.

Governor Carcieri said in a statement about the move, “This should send a clear message to all companies who are doing business with the state. We will not tolerate non-compliance of state and federal laws and we will not tolerate companies who violate the terms of their contract.”

Williams said the administration has put all state agencies on notice that they are responsible for the “cleanliness” of their buildings while the state does an “emergency procurement” to bring in replacements, by Aug. 12, for up to 90 days, while going back out to bid for new multi-year cleaning contracts.

Falcon is listed at 160 Winsor Ave. in Johnston.

TriState Enterprises is at 1270 Mineral Spring Ave. in North Providence. Anthony E. DeSimone Jr. is president and chief executive, and David A. Civetti is vice president. DeSimone is the brother of state Rep. John DeSimone, D-Providence, a one-time candidate for House speaker who, as a lawyer, represents the Providence teachers union.

Between them, the two companies currently have close to 50 state cleaning contracts across state government, including the main state office building on Smith Hill, the attorney general’s office, two state Division of Motor Vehicles offices, the Board of Elections, the North Main Street Armory, the state’s command readiness facility, and the state’s emergency telecommunications system, E-911.

In the year that ended June 30, the state court system paid TriState a total of $493,325 and Falcon $261,643. The state paid TriState an additional $732,891 and Falcon $579,456 under the non-court cleaning contracts.

When reached after the governor’s announcement late yesterday afternoon, Civetti, TriState’s vice president, said, “Yeah, it’s all news to me…This is the first I’m hearing of that.”

Civetti said he and DeSimone, the company president, were planning to meet with their lawyer, Thomas DeSimone, Anthony’s brother, last evening and might have more to say today. D’Elia could not be reached for comment.

The investigation that led to the courthouse arrests began when a courthouse clerk notified the Capitol Police after coming to work at the J. Joseph Garrahy Complex and seeing a paper reproduction of some sort of identification on the floor next to a copy machine.

The arrests sparked a rash of no-show janitors at eight other state buildings, which the attorney general interpreted as a sign that one of his own janitors had come in with bogus identification.

Carcieri announced that he had ordered an “internal” review. At the time, his office said: “A contract can be terminated if a company is found in violation of federal law or if they are not in compliance with the terms of the contract.”

On July 17, Williams wrote DeSimone and D’Elia: “In light of the activity conducted by the federal immigrations agents and the state police yesterday resulting in the arrest of employees of [Falcon Maintenance Co./TriState Enterprises] who are allegedly not authorized to work in the United States, it is incumbent on the state to determine if the company is in compliance with its contractual commitments to the state…. It has also come to our attention that the company failed to perform its services at certain state facilities over the past couple of days. This gives us great concern.”

To date, no criminal charges had been filed against the owners of the two companies or against any of the 31 suspected illegal immigrants working for them, although the workers all face administrative charges of being in this country illegally.

But Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the state police have advised the governor’s office that there is an “ongoing investigation” by the U.S. Attorney’s office that focuses not only on employees of the companies, but also the companies.

With respect to the six courthouse contracts and the 63 TriState and Falcon employees assigned to them, spokesman Craig Berke said: “The Judiciary has been conducting its own examination.… No decision has been made. The contracts remain in effect.”

—With reports from staff writer Tom MooneyPolice notify ICE of suspect in identity theft

The Fall River Police Department has notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement about a suspect in an identity theft who told the department she was in the country illegally.

Eliza Lima is one of two former TriState cleaning women accused of stealing the Social Security numbers of employees at the University of Rhode Island and using them to buy merchandise with fraudulent credit cards.

A police report said Lima, after her arrest in March, was asked "if she was illegal in this country. She stated ‘yes.’ "

Sgt. Thomas Mauretti said the department notified ICE yesterday and were “remiss” in not contacting the agency earlier. (Journal staff report)

kgregg@projo.com